This is the account adopted by Benjamin Haydon for his painting Eucles Announcing the Victory of Marathon, published as an engraving in 1836 with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD, which quotes from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles. It is said that he ran the entire distance to Athens without stopping, discarding his weapons and even clothes to lose as much weight as possible, and burst into the assembly, exclaiming νενικήκαμεν ( nenikēkamen, 'we have won!'), before collapsing and dying. He interpreted this as an attempt by the defeated Persians to rush into the city to claim a false victory or simply raid, hence claiming their authority over Greek land. The legend states that, while he was taking part in the Battle of Marathon, which took place in August or September, 490 BC, he witnessed a Persian vessel changing its course towards Athens as the battle was near a victorious end for the Greek army. The name Marathon comes from the legend of Philippides (or Pheidippides), the Greek messenger.

Luc-Olivier Merson's 1869 painting depicting the runner announcing the victory at the Battle of Marathon to the people of Athens

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